This blog will follow my Slimming World journey as I lose weight for my wedding. I hope to include my thoughts, feelings, progress and recipes.

Tuesday, 29 March 2011

My SW Cooking Tips - Part 1

These are a few things that I have found useful when cooking on SW. I'll add more as I think of them!

I often find that vegetables and meat burn easier with fry light than they would do with oil, so I add a splash of water to the frying pan along with the fry light and keep adding water if I feel food is burning. Everything still cooks, and I've not added any syns.

Red lentils are brilliant for thickening sauces, soups and stocks, rather than using flour or gravy granules. I add a handful during cooking and they almost disintigrate into the sauce/stock and give it a nice thickness.

Invest in a slow cooker. These are great for one pot meals. It's easy to chop some veg, meat and potatoes in the morning, stick them in the slow cooker and the food is ready in the evening. I've found there's no need to brown the meat, and it always ends up tender.

I'm a mash addict, and have tried adding stock, quark, natural yogurt and fromage frais to mash instead of butter, but was never happy with the taste, and it felt really diety. Now I just add a little milk from my daily allowance, lots of nutmeg and finely chopped spring onion. The extra flavour brought by the nutmeg and spring onion means that I don't miss the butter, and it doesn't feel like a diet mash.

My slow cooker is never out of use. I'm not a big salad fan, so stick with the stews in the summer too! I could use mayo or philly in the mash, but I'd have to count syns for it, and trying to stick with the free foods!